It's Life, Just Life
by Citiesofcolor
Summary: After a stressful day for everyone, back at the brewery Hardison finds he and Sophie have something in common. Something that he didn't expect. Post "The Rundown Job" and "The Frame Up Job" scene.


**Title:** It's Life. Just Life.  
**Characters/pairing:** Hardison, Sophie, Hardison/Parker, Sophie/Nate  
**Rating:** K  
**Warnings: **Spoilers for "The Frame Up Job" and "The Rundown Job"  
**Word count:** 1,713  
**Summary: **After a stressful day for everyone, back at the bar Hardison finds he and Sophie have something in common.  
**A/N: **A labor of love, and full of very meta references to various sci-fi shows. But, especially Doctor Who. Inspired by Sophie and Sterling's cover names as undercover Interpol agents Tennant and Smith, and written to soothe my (1) missing Leverage during the midseason break and (2) OH MY LORD THE PONDS! The title is a quote from Amy, explaining what goes on while the Doctor's not around: "It's life. Just life. You know, that thing that happens when you're not around." Seeing as these two episodes were all about separation of the team, I thought it fit. Thanks tons to my fantabulous beta

* * *

It's just them now, he noticed. He didn't really want to talk and it looked like she didn't either, but the silence was companionable enough. She sipped at her drink thoughtfully and he read the latest posts on io9. It was late, already 11:45. Nate had left much earlier, promising to leave the light on for her. Eliot had gone off to wherever the hell he went off to shortly after, and Parker was upstairs, starting her nightly ritual of sugar cereal and warm milk before bed. When he planned to leave and join her she would be in her pajamas and then there would be a fight over what they should watch on Netflix. Parker always wanted Star Trek: The Next Generation and he wanted Battlestar Galactica, but he let her choose just because he loved to see the childlike wonder on her face at every ultra-modern concept prop that the writers had come up with. And Data, of course. For Parker, Data jokes never got old. And besides, it was a classic. Classics were cool, and he'd seen all of Battlestar Galactica four times already.

Just now he's not ready for it for yet. He's still a little jittery, even after the four-hour flight with Parker sleeping on his shoulder. It had done him a lot of good after the terror of almost losing her, to feel her warm, breathing, and alive right next to him. Still, he had felt weird since the metro, and there was an awful tension in his chest that wouldn't loosen.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sophie twirling the drink in her hand slowly. He looked up at her face, for once, closed off and blank. She was staring into space, strangely subdued after such a big win. Looking back at the screen, he wondered for a moment. _Seriously, come on._ How many people had Metier paintings of themselves? And a _lost_ Metier at that? And, not to be rude or anything (his nana had taught him better than that), but Sophie did not really do subdued.

"Tennant and Smith."

Her voice catches him off guard and he jerks his head up, like he's in high school again and his computer teacher's just caught him hacking into the grading system. She's smiling at him, fingers still twisting the glass in her hand, a twinkle in her eye like she knows something he doesn't.

"What?" He spluttered, completely off guard.

"Agents Tennant and Smith, Undercover Interpol. You'll have to add them to the running list of aliases we've used."

At first he didn't understand. "How do you want me to spell that?"

She quirked a brow, smile turning mischievous. "You Hardison, of all people, should know how to spell those names."

She flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder, in a somewhat self-satisfied way, he thought. He still didn't understand. Was this some kind of grifter mind-gamey thing? He didn't think he had done anything she'd feel the need to get back at him for, and she'd mostly stopped doing that neuro-mind-control-programming stuff that she used to use on Eliot anyway.

She looked at him expectantly. He still didn't get it.

"As in what?"

She chuckled. "As in David and Matt, Hardison."

_Oh! _"Wait? You mean..." He trailed off. _Wait a second._

"Yes Hardison. As in Ten and Eleven."

He's dumbfounded for a moment. His mouth could even be open and he wouldn't have even noticed. Meanwhile, she looked like she was barely holding back laughter.

"Since when do you watch Doctor Who Sophie?"

She laughed for real that time. Not able to suppress it any longer, he supposed. "Since Two. But I didn't really understand it until Three and Sarah Jane."

"Really?"

He's dumbfounded again. He's only watched regularly since... well, Ten. But he'd made up for it! She mock rolled her eyes.

"Of course Hardison. I'm English. My father used to rock me to sleep while it was on telly. But I wasn't old enough to understand it until I was seven." She paused, looking back down at her drink, before she caught his eyes again. "I wanted to be an investigative journalist for so long after that."

He wasn't quite sure what to say, and she was looking at him with something like victory in her eyes. Suddenly his geek cred seems to come up a little short. He shut his computer and pushed it away to try and give himself something to do while he thought of a response.

"Wow," he finally said, half flustered and half amused. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

She sipped from her drink again and then tapped her nails on the counter. "At first it seemed like a one-off thing, and then, once I realized what you were doing, you seemed to be having such fun naming all our aliases I didn't want to spoil it for you."

Then something clicked.

"I should have known," he said, "you had an alias called Sarah Jane Baker that I didn't set up."

She smiled again. "I always loved Sarah Jane. When I would get homesick on jobs I would poke around in specialty shops for any series on VHS. Now that we're settled I can just watch BBC America."

He decided to play along. "So if Sarah Jane's your favorite companion, who's your favorite Doctor?"

She shook her head. "No, actually the second Romana is. There was always something about them, her and Four." She trailed off, and then laughed. "I don't know, but when Nate was chasing me it kind of reminded me of them. They were equals, similar and different. She had her own sonic screwdriver, could save him just like he saved her. And my God, the chemistry..." She laughed again, cutting herself off. "But for Doctor, it's between Ten and Four, though Eleven is just adorable. You?"

He was so engrossed in picking up the pieces of her past that he wasn't prepared for the turnabout. He was a little stumped. Outside of teh internetz he'd never really talked about it. He thought for a moment.

"Nine, I think. Nine and Eleven. And Rose for companion."

It was her turn to be surprised. "Really? I thought you'd like Amy and Rory best."

"Rose was badass." He didn't say that she kind of reminded him of Parker a little. Petite, blond, adorable, and totally badass. Besides, who didn't like a good love story sometimes?

She smiled and looked back down at her drink. There was only a little left, and she finished it in one go.

His phone rang, Parker probably, wanting him to come up so they can start watching Star Trek.  
She got up to go, and he realized she was still wearing the dress from earlier. Suddenly he felt at loose ends, unsure of how to end the conversation, and there had to be some reason she'd brought it up in the first place. This was Sophie they were talking about.

"So, Agents Tennant and Smith?" he prompted jokingly.

To his surprise, instead of replying with a joke or an explanation her eyes softened and she sighed. "Rose and Ten. Bad Wolf Bay. They said goodbye for the last time, but she doesn't want him to go."

He knew what she's talking about, but didn't understand where she was going with it.

"Yeah, I think I might have gotten something in my eye during that episode. What about it?"

She leaned in closer and put her hand on his. He could smell her perfume. "Your story of what happened in the metro in Washington. You tried to make it seem like it was nothing big."

_Oh._ So that was it.

She looked down at their hands, and he followed her gaze. "Hardison, your hands have been shaking this whole time."

He hadn't even noticed, but she had. She looked into his eyes and he knew she could see right through all his bravado. He couldn't keep her gaze.

"I just wanted you to know that you're not alone. You don't have to carry that by yourself. We're all here for you."

He couldn't speak for a moment, a lump in his throat. He felt like he was on the verge of tears, the fear and relief making it a little hard to think. He moved his hand from under hers and swiped at his eyes.

She didn't say anything else, just looked at him with all the compassion in the world. He wondered fleetingly if she'd been grifting this whole time, but found that he didn't care. What he felt was real, and then he was thankful, but not quite sure how to say it.

"The Wedding of River Song, right? Where she almost breaks the universe to show him that people care?"

She smiled. "Hello Sweetie."

He laughed, and the serious air of a moment ago slowly evaporated. She looked at him searchingly with gentle eyes. He didn't know what to do, almost at a loss, but then she seemed to find whatever she was looking for because she nodded. Then she turned away from him and began gathering her things.

Conversation seemingly over, he quickly checked his phone and shot a text to Parker. _Be there in a minute._

Sophie finished checking her purse and, before she left, turned around to look at him once more.

"Fish fingers and custard?"

Oh, but she was wonderful.

"Fish fingers and custard," he agreed.

She turned around and walked through the door. He followed her with his eyes until she was out of sight.

He took a deep breath. The tension in his chest was gone. Then he stood, grabbed his computer, and turned out the lights.

Parker was upstairs waiting, and when he opened the door and saw her sprawled out on the bed, the theme song of Star Trek playing over the speakers, he felt like he had finally come home.


End file.
